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Can the Colorado Avalanche Sustain their Streak?

By Nadia Archuleta

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - DECEMBER 08: (L-R) Gabriel Landeskog #92, Nathan MacKinnon #29 and Logan O'Connor #25 of the Colorado Avalanche celebrate MacKinnon's second period goal against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on December 08, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - DECEMBER 08: (L-R) Gabriel Landeskog #92, Nathan MacKinnon #29 and Logan O'Connor #25 of the Colorado Avalanche celebrate MacKinnon's second period goal against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on December 08, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /
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The Colorado Avalanche are enjoying a streak. Can they sustain the success?

The Colorado Avalanche took what many of us thought was their rightful position in first place of the Central Division and, indeed, the whole Western Conference when they beat the Arizona Coyotes.

What’s more, the Avalanche have a nice little streak going. They’re 8-1-1 in the last 10 games and have won two in a row. That kind of play is a relief after the rocky start the team took in October.

In fact, that rocky start was frustrating for a lot of reasons. It made no sense why they’d gotten off to such a slow start. And you hate to see a team lose any advantage at any point in the season. When it gets to crunch time, when the injuries start piling up again, you hate to look back at those first two months with regret.

Well, Colorado is on a good roll now. What’s more, on paper, their play looks solid. They’re dominant at home, with a 15-2-1 record. And they’re well above .500 on the road with 9-6-2. They’ve already seen a spate of injuries that have taken their best players out for different period of time.

So, all-in-all, the Avalanche seem to be in a good space. However, is their current success sustainable?

Well, the biggest gap in the team continues to be at the goalie position. Sure, both Darcy Kuemper and Pavel Francouz have been solid of late. However, close your eyes and imagine the team that motors to the ultimate victory, the Stanley Cups. Do you really imagine that team being backstopped by either Kuemper of Francouz? Really really?

We all know goal tending is a key to Stanley Cup success. I just don’t see either of those goalies having that level of play in them.

Of course, you only have to score one more than the opponent team to win the game. It actually doesn’t really matter if your goalie let in four as long as you score five. Colorado is built to be a scoring machine.

Hey, this is a team in which superstud Nathan MacKinnon is third for scoring! Sure, he’s one of those key players we were without for a while — 10 games to be exact, and it sometimes felt like 100. But it’s still amazing to see Mikko Rantanen and Nazem Kadri leading the team.

The Colorado Avalanche spent the last few years stacking their blueline. It’s paying off now. Of course, the star of the show is sensation Cale Makar. Norris Trophy anyone? How great is it, though, to also see Devon Toews, Sam Girard, and Erik Johnson pitching in? I, for one, and just glad to see our captain of the blueline has played all 35 games.

To answer the question in the title, yes, the current winning is sustainable. This team has proved they can weather the storm and rise up triumphantly.

That said, it’ll be worrisome if they don’t solve their goalie issue. As the old adage goes, you only get so many kicks at the can. Sure, it was a feel-good story when Alexander Ovechkin finally won his first Stanley Cup at the age of 33. I don’t think any of us want to wait until Nathan MacKinnon, who’s currently 26, reaches that age milestone before he lifts the Cup.

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